Farewell, SCOTUS

[Mark Mandel]

Maybe the AP doesn't want to be taken for a dunce...

m a m

On Tue, May 19, 2009 at 1:49 PM, Pat O'Conner <mailbox at grammarphobia.com>wrote:

> Breaking news from a source at the Associated Press. In an email =
> distributed this morning (5/19), AP informed all editorial staff members =
> that it will no longer use the familiar keyword SCOTUS in the slug lines =
> of its articles about the Supreme Court of the United States. =20
>
> In relaying the news, which applies to all AP bureaus, a manager =
> explained to Washington staffers: "In an effort to be more friendly to =
> non-traditional customers, the AP is cutting down on wire jargon, even =
> in slugs and editors' notes. So, I am sad to report, SCOTUS is dead. =
> Going forward, please use BC-US--Supreme Court as the starting point for =
> the stories about the highest court."
>
> I'm told this will undoubtedly mean the end of SCONJ, which some =
> considered an apt name for any court forced to sit in Trenton, NJ. Could =
> be that the change is driven by search engine protocols. Apparently =
> search engines prefer full names, like Supreme Court, to acronyms, like =
> SCOTUS.
>

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org